Rating: 
Summary: WARNING: if you start reading this you can't put it down!!!!
Review: Yes it's true, once you start reading this book you can't put it down. The author keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. I would like to be able to retrace some of Mary Ingles footsteps much like the author did!! There is a Mary Ingles day in West Virginia that I will get to someday. It's so remarkable what the human spirit can do when faced with such unsurmountable odds as she had in those terrible months. A must read for anyone loving history.
Rating:
Summary: My absolute favorite among all historical fiction titles.
Review: The historical figure in Thom's book could not swim when she escaped from her Shawnee captors with the determination to return home. Yet she forded rivers and streams, surviving in the wild by sheer determination. In this book you don't just read about the experiences of this remarkably brave woman. Through James Alexander Thom's skill as a writer you plumb the depths of her loneliness and your gut knots tight with her fear. In preparing to write this great book, James Thom hiked the actual trail followed by the pioneer women who became the leading figure of his novel. Most amazingly, when he has led you through the trauma of his horoine's remarkable trek home, he tells you what details she actually lived and which events he fabricated for your benefit as a reader. When I realized what he was doing, I was sure it would ruin my perception of the work. Instead, it deepened my appreciation for the book, its author, and the amazing woman he portrayed. I recommend Follow the River for EVERY reader--but especially for those who are taking their first taste of historical fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Follow the River is the best survival book I've read.
Review: I've read this book three times and teach it to my twelfth grade English classes. Mary Ingles is an inspiration of the possibilities of endurance of the human spirit. Victim of a brutal Shawnee attack in the summer of 1755 she is force marched from Virginia to Shawnee, Ohio while nine months pregnant giving birth on the trail. She is sold into slavery and taked to the area near Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky. Together with an old Dutch woman she escapes and begins a 1,000 mile trek home through unknown and hostile wilderness. In 43 harrowing days she goes from 125 pounds to under 80 pounds as she faces the elements, starvation, wild animals, hostile Indians, implacable nature, and a companion that turns cannibal. The reader shares the agony of the journey with Mary as she must go the final miles on her hands and knees. The most amazing thing about the story is it is true. Like his other historical novels Thom has done his research and he makes the history come alive for his reader.
Rating:
Summary: THE ONLY BOOKREPORT I HAD FUN MAKING
Review: I read this book, for a West Virginia Studies bookreport I had to do. I'm not a very fast reader, so this book seemed to me as another completley boring obstacle I had to pass. But on the first night I got the book, I finnished it! It is a true page-turner, and truly does show what settlers of that time had to encounter.
Rating:
Summary: An incredible experience!
Review: An engrossing and powerful story told in a compelling and understandable way. The reader identifies with Mary Ingles from the very beginning to the fantastic ending. You are beside her on every step of her incredible journey and feel each hunger pain. An inspiring tale of an admirable and amazingly strong woman. A must read!
Rating:
Summary: You are prisoner of this book from page 1 to the end!
Review: A glimpse into what it was like on the wild and unknown frontier. Mary is a courageous woman with more guts than anyone I've ever met. A truly inspiring story about the will to not only live, but to be reunited with her husband and her 'life' as she remembered it. The detail of each scene makes you feel the same anxiety, pain, anger, hunger, fatigue, and mostly hope that Mary felt. In the end, you wanted to know more about this woman and what happened after the book ended. Based on a true story!
Rating:
Summary: The most fascinating book that I have ever read!
Review: "Follow the River" is the true story of a young woman, Mary Draper Ingles,
captured in a Shawnee Indian raid on her Virginia settlement
in 1755 and her incredible journey to return to her people.
After the Indians had kidnapped her along with her children
and several others from her settlement, Mary escaped and began
to walk back to Virginia from the Indian's camp near the present
day city of Cincinnati. This book is the story of her journey.
Rating:
Summary: PIONEER ADVENTURE at it's best !
Review: I loved this book! I love any story that is about pioneer life and this one takes the cake. One thing I really appreciated was the way the author let you experience all the awful things this woman endured, but there was still a positive thread throughout. For example, when he tells of the Indian Massacre in the beginning of the story, he describes in detail all the horrible things they did to the settlers and I felt myself "in" the story, yet I was not traumatized. Usually if I read of humans being tortured or murdered at the hands of other humans, I am haunted for days with a sick feeling in my stomach. But somehow James Alexander Thom was able to keep my hope in humanity in tact. He told of how Mary (the main character) witnessed her sister-in-law being badly injured and tortured by the braves but then 2 minutes later when they held a knife to Mary's throat, she could hear her sister-in-law praying for her --praying for God to spare her life-- and she was moved at her sister-in-law's love for her. That love carried her through that horrible experience. I thought that was such an uplifting thing to share in a story that would normally be discouraging.
He portrayed Mary talking to herself in a positive way to encourage herself to keep travelling toward home no matter how tired and hungry she was. I think reading about her actually caused me to grow in my own life. She was so strong and I want to be more like that.
Rating:
Summary: OH, I COULDN'T DO THAT
Review: When reading this book, I would put it down and say out loud OH, I couldn't do that and then I would think, most women are never really challenged to do something so hard that they learn their true character. Modern women are not allowed to be as bold and as fearless and as determined. What are you capable of? Maybe if you are lucky you will find out and it will inspire you to try new things and new adventures and realize your own worth. But in the mean time read this book and know that women can do whatever they put their minds and backs and wills to.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite all time book
Review: I read this book was I was about 16 (10 years ago) and it was truly the only book I read as a teenager that I enjoyed and wasn't able to put down. Now 10 years later I came across the book in a box of old belongings and I read it again! The only book I've ever read twice and both times I couldn't put it down! Her (Mary's) journey and courage just blew me away! And I loved that the author wrote at the end what was actaully true and what he had to make up as he wrote it. I will definately look for more books by this author! I hope they're all as good! If you know someone who isn't much of a reader and you wish they were - this is the book to hook them on reading!
|
